Fine dining

Wednesday, June 21st
Merced, CA

Colored lights on signs need to be flashing and spinning. A disco ball inside a chandelier.

A little shrine with offerings of fruit and food to Siddhartha. I understand the thought, but placing it underneath the buffet island is worshiping insects and rats.

Faux marble trim around the bars and tables. Colored plastic on the walls. There's maybe a hipster joint somewhere that tries hard to be this authentically tacky.

I can't get enough of it.

Ulix eyeing my last piece of chicken.

The waiters were disorganized and weren't aware of their duties. I refilled my water from the bottle in my backpack. I had to repeat in Chinese my request for the check to a confused young man.


Tuesday, June 21st.
Livingston, CA.

Chat with the restaurant owner.

"Oh you speak Mandarin? Just about never can get a customer who can speak Chinese round here."

I said, lots of Mexicans round here though. He said, everywhere all Mexicans! At first we ran the restaurant where you order dishes, that's what we wanted. But the Mexicans didn't know what to order, and plus they wanted their meal to be inexpensive. So we had no choice but to offer buffet.

It seemed not to register when I told him I'm traveling by bike. He had no response. No questions or comments about it. He told me to drive safely and that Modesto was half an hour away (it was by car, but I said two hours by bike). Still no reaction. I dunno, it was like he was understanding what I was saying, but having zero comprehension.

I tried the exotic southern hemisphere flavors of ice cream that Americans don't make. I thought I was getting red bean, but it turned out to be raisins. The second bar of ice cream looked like a sweet papaya but it was like a salty salsa. I shoulda stuck with the coconut and pineapple variety of exotic, the ones I can understand and stomach.

Putting salt on fruits and vegetables instead of sugar is just weird.

Stealing Free Continental Breakfasts

Woke up near a Marriott one morning and stepped inside for bladder relief. They were serving breakfast so I partook. Toast, waffles, cereal with milk, yogurt, oranges - I ate it all.

At first, I intended to quickly grab a bowl of milk and cereal and go, in case my dirty hygiene would offend the guests. But the server lady saw me and asked if I wanted any of the breads and muffins before she started closing the section. I had the green light. Sure. Om nom nom.

Morally, there's no need to be greedy about stealing things I don't need. And I got by on my lunch buffet regime alright. So why go through trouble to steal a breakfast, when I can fill that empty space in my stomach a few hours later at the buffet?

I've had some spotty nights of sleep recently and with the morning sun beating on my face to wake me up, I'm parched and could use some milk and fruit to start my traveling.

Staying in hotels legit in the past, I had noted they don't check if you are a customer. Except for some real fancy places that someone at the door ask for your key card, you can just walk through the lobby into the breakfast area. I just haven't put this observation into practice until recent couple of times.

Because I'm traveling, there are fresh hotels everywhere. Usually if there's one hotel in the area, there are others so I can shop around for free breakfast. If I'm staying in the area, I might get a few free breakfasts from different places before I've used them all up. Might help me out in a pinch.

When I was living out of my car in Colorado, I didn't do any breakfast stealing 'cause I was staying in that area for several months. What's to gain from a few morning meals before I need to repeat the local venues and get caught?

The real cheap motels are kinda hard to pull it off, because they are more suspicious of their clientele. The best are the middle class hotels that are wealthy enough to afford meals, too polite to make their guests show ID, and not exclusively rich enough to hire concierges-types that tell you don't belong.

Land of Freedom 

I can add Continental Breakfast to the list of Free things I steal. Okay, it's not much of a list. I thought I had more. I can't think of what other Free things do businesses sell?

• WiFi
• Continental Breakfast 
• Food samples

I get legit freebies.

• University educational video lectures
• Electricity
• Public bathrooms
• Drinking water
• Books

I steal non-free free things

• Digital forms of copyrighted books, music, movies, sports broadcasts, games.
• Showers
• Cookies from the buffet
• Toilet paper and paper towels

But stealing is a form of promoting freedom right? Right?????

It's American and patriotic, no? Like... stealing elections! Or printer paper from the office.

Plus it's only stealing if you get caught. It doesn't count either, unless the monetary amount exceeds one dollar. Also, if you have tenfold more money than the other guy it's not stealing.

It's only stealing if you're not the one making the rules. If you get to write the laws, then it's fair game to steal. Stealing applies to the servant taking from the master, but not the other way around. Right???????????

"When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me." - Emo Phillips, comedian.

source

Morning camps 

Lowe's

Empty lot at shopping mall

Empty lot at shopping mall

Street outside high school

Stuff

Cool art under a bridge. Video camera surveillance to deter vandalism. +1.

Spider

Shine the light on the spider, she climbs up her strand of silk and hides under the ledge above. Soon as I look away, down she comes again.

Hide from the bigger creatures, prey on the smaller ones. It's the behavior of all living things, really. I'm out here at night making use of my environment just like the bugs around me.

I'm hoping not to be seen and going about my business when no one's looking. I'm charging my phone, getting a place to stay, sleeping. Bugs are hiding under my backpack, crawling around my blankets.

It's hard to get upset at them without being hypocritical, really, so I let them be.

Sun burn.

My face is so tanned now that Chinese people have a hard time telling I'm Chinese. Vietnamese, Filipino people have been asking me if I am the same nationality as them.

Cliff bars and condoms. The two things I buy at Costco.
Didn't expect I could get these at the campus library.

Empty pack of cigarettes next to no smoking sign.